Over the past three or four years, there has been a shift from acquisitions to lending among real assets investors. Commercial real estate prices increased starting in 2008 when acquisitions of both residential and commercial real estate were quite high. The shift from acquisitions to lending to real asset owners/investors in need of capital is fast becoming a new trend. Lenders are able to earn on the interest of the loans rather than commit to an asset—particularly commercial which has seen a drop in value. That drop has been most dramatic during the pandemic, although the decline was beginning prior to March 2020. Investors who may have diminishing values in their real estate portfolio can turn to private capital to provide needed liquidity—particularly during the recent volatility in the market.
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There is no shortage of capital in this world. Real interest rates remain at or close to 0%. Investors continue to struggle to find adequate yield in traditional fixed income investments. Consequently, we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the creation of, and investor interest in, private lending/private debt funds. Now more than ever, private debt funds and nonbank lenders need state of the art, innovative technology to support their private debt loan administration. According to a Preqin Quarterly update report on private credit dated Q3 2020, the number of private debt funds in the market has grown to a record high. As of October 2020, 521 vehicles were on the road seeking $295B in aggregate capital. Additionally, the number of funds in the market has grown consistently over the past five years and aggregate capital targeted has more than doubled since January 2015. (Preqin)
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It goes without saying that good products are key to success for asset managers. Our advisor survey data, conducted in association with Horsesmouth, shows that the attribute that is most highly correlated with firm advocacy is “great/quality products.” In other words, advisors who view a firm as having high-quality products are significantly more likely to recommend that firm to other advisors.
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As regulators around the globe beef up their enforcement of best execution rules, wealth managers need to pay attention now more than ever. When trading assets, brokers are required to seek the best execution reasonably available to fill their customers' orders. Similarly, advisors need to prove that their client’s total costs (or proceeds) in each transaction are the most favorable under the prevailing market conditions. For wealth managers, meeting best execution mandates means having a systematic approach in place to report on these fiduciary responsibilities.
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2020 has been memorable, to say the least. As we reflect on all we have learned over the past 12 months, we invite you to read some of our most popular blog entries, presented here in chronological order.
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In this current environment of the COVID-19 pandemic, Family Offices that do not utilize outsource or co-source services have quickly determined they have a significant gap in their operations and reporting environment. Many Family Offices have realized their data is weeks or months stale. Readily available information is hard to pull together due to manual processes across multiple systems. Processes that have been maintained over the years due to legacy technology and workflows have been inherited by their current teams, with replication across teams proving to be complicated.
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Most asset managers recognize that their current compensation schemes are outdated. Gross sales commissions do not adequately reflect the health of the business and are falling out of favor as the driving metric for sales success. In addition, the past few months have seen a catalyst in advisor interest in—and even demand for—remote engagements with asset manager sales teams, which have highlighted that the metrics used to evaluate activity must also change. Our recent survey shows 56% of asset managers are considering changes to their compensation structures and nearly every asset manager is rethinking how to measure sales success.
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How does an alternative manager benefit from shadow services? Shadow accounting is when a manager directs or performs in-house accounting books and records to reconcile or shadow the books and records maintained by a third-party administrator. A manager performs these tasks for a variety of reasons—they may be required to by fund documents, or they want control and fast access to investment results, or they believe that they have a higher level of expertise in the strategies behind their business than the record keepers.
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